The video is the second to surface this year in which an SFPD officer appears to dramatically escalate his use of force after overreacting to a minor conflict. In January, a private citizen released footage of an officer trying to dump a paralyzed man from his wheelchair.

The latest incident, which took place Feb. 11 at Cabrillo and La Playa streets near Ocean Beach, was captured on Muni surveillance.

At 11 p.m., San Francisco Police Officer Raymond Chu responded to a report of a person sleeping on a 5-Fulton bus that had reached the end of the line. The video shows Chu trying to rouse 36-year-old Bernard Warren for more than 30 seconds before Warren awakes, disheveled and disoriented.

Warren appears to have trouble standing and walking. Chu begins pushing him toward the exit. On his way off the bus, Warren, who has a slurred speech impediment, slowly mumbles over his shoulder to Chu, “Don’t touch me. I could beat your ass.”

Chu becomes enraged, yells “Dude, fucking what did you say?” and shoves and kicks Warren off the bus, where the homeless man staggers in the street.

As Warren walks away, Chu brandishes his police baton, yelling “We done here? We done here? Yeah, keep walking.”
Chu then pursues Warren and strikes him with the baton as Warren continues to stumble in the street.

Chu claimed in his police report that Warren approached him with clenched fists, though the video shows him turned away from the officer. Chu wrote in the report that he hit Warren in the legs five times with a baton before deploying his pepper spray.

“The baton strikes were again ineffective, and Warren was attempting to flee from the scene. I then used my department issued (pepper spray) and administered a 3 second burst to Warren’s eye area,” he wrote. The pepper spraying can be seen at 2:32 in the video.

Warren was arrested for threatening an executive officer. After two weeks in jail, Warren was released over strenuous objections from prosecutors, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Andrea Lindsay. A jury trial is scheduled for March 6. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

San Francisco Public Defender Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez said the latest video, coupled with the January wheelchair incident, show that police are in urgent need of training.

“Both videos show a reckless and unnecessary escalation of force. In Mr. Warren’s case, there was no justification for the use of a baton or pepper spray. Officers must be trained to diffuse conflicts rather than intensify them. We should not expect these routine encounters to end in bruises and burns,” Gonzalez said.

Warren was treated by paramedics. He suffered serious bruising to his legs and pain in his eyes and face.

“It was clear Mr. Warren could not have carried out any sort of threat. Yet he was incarcerated for over two weeks, at a cost to taxpayers of $150 a day. Now we are dealing with costly court hearings and investigations and legal filings. It is a tremendous waste of resources because an officer lost his temper,” Adachi said.

The District Attorney has refused to dismiss charges against Warren. Chu faces no discipline from police.

Video of the incident can be seen here: http://youtu.be/ccZjGRUEuL0

]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/video-officer-strikes-pepper-sprays-homeless-man/feed/0Special Courts Take On Criminal Cases of Veterans Struggling With Traumahttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/special-courts-take-on-criminal-cases-of-veterans-struggling-with-trauma/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/special-courts-take-on-criminal-cases-of-veterans-struggling-with-trauma/#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 17:52:30 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3864GWEN IFILL: The number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, continues to grow. And as some get into trouble with the law, special veterans courts are finding different ways to deal with them.

NewsHour special correspondent Spencer Michels reports.

MAN: Remain seated and come to order. Deportment 4 is now in session.

SPENCER MICHELS: Every Friday afternoon, Judge Jeffrey Ross turns his San Francisco courtroom into a veterans court, one of 220 such courts in the country that hear cases of former military members who have been arrested, often for drug offenses, sometimes for violence.

To signal how different his court is, he often brings a basket of fruit and candy for the defendants.

MAN: Even me being in anger management, what good is that? Because I snapped.

SPENCER MICHELS: It’s what’s called a collaborative court, where the judge, the district attorney, the public defender, the probation officer and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs work together to treat, or to punish, each defendant.

JUDGE JEFFREY ROSS, San Francisco County Superior Court: It’s good to see you. How are you?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ, Army Veteran: I’m doing excellent, sir.

JUDGE JEFFREY ROSS: That’s what I hear, and I’m glad to hear it.

SPENCER MICHELS: Forty-three-year-old Axel Rodriguez has had a lot of problems common to vets. He served in the Army in the Gulf War in Iraq and Kuwait more than 20 years ago.

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: It was crazy, it was exciting, it was scary. I have nightmares. I don’t like being in closed rooms. I don’t like large groups of people. I just don’t feel in control.

SPENCER MICHELS: You obviously got into some kind of trouble. You’re in court.

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

SPENCER MICHELS: What kind of trouble?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: I got arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of a controlled substance.

SPENCER MICHELS: Just that one…

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: No, a couple of times, you know, a couple of times.

And at first, I didn’t want to accept that I needed help.

SPENCER MICHELS: Rodriguez spent some time in jail and kept re-offending.

Why are you abusing? Do you revert back to your time in the Gulf War, and PTSD, or is it something else?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: No. It starts off with that, but then once you become an addict, everything goes out the window. The only thing that you care about is maintaining your inebriated state.

SPENCER MICHELS: On a few occasions, he says, he became violent.

You’re talking about fights?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

SPENCER MICHELS: You’re talking about girlfriends?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: Well, not with girlfriends, but with other men. You know, it’s just like the combativeness. It’s a great characteristic to have if you’re in the military. But it’s not one to have when you’re out in the normal world, to be combative.

SPENCER MICHELS: San Francisco district attorney George Gascon, who was in the Army and was police chief before he became DA, argues that vets accused of crime shouldn’t be treated like common criminals.

GEORGE GASCON, San Francisco District Attorney: If you’re talking about people that have severe trauma from being on the battlefield and may be self-medicating themselves, these are things that the criminal justice system cannot fix unless we bring other people on board.

SPENCER MICHELS: When veterans courts first began seven years ago, there were some serious questions: Why set up an alternative justice system just for veterans? And how could you not prosecute violence, even though the perpetrator had a bad wartime experiences? But those objections faded as some of the courts have shown good success.

About a quarter of the clients here have graduated, while slightly more have transferred or been reassigned to regular criminal court. The rest are still in the system. But those numbers, officials argue, are better than simply sending disturbed vets to jail time and time again.

JUDGE JEFFREY ROSS: Our goal is to find an outcome which will both prevent recidivism, keep the public safe, keep the victims from being re-victimized, but also deal with the person’s background and the reasons he that he committed the violent conduct that we were just addressing.

SPENCER MICHELS: Using federal grants, as well a local funds, courts rely on the VA to coordinate physical and mental care, plus weekly court dates for vets in trouble. It’s up to the vet to comply.

KYONG YI, Department of Veterans Affairs: We often meet with the veteran when they’re in custody, develop a plan for where they’re going to go when they’re coming out, especially if they’re homeless.

SPENCER MICHELS: Kyong Yi works for the VA.

KYONG YI: We also link them immediately with mental health and medical services. A lot of folks, we will put into transitional housing, or if they have a substance abuse issue, we will put them in residential treatment.

SPENCER MICHELS: As with many vets, housing has been a problem for Rodriguez. He recently moved to a recovery house called Fresh Start, mostly for veterans, after getting evicted from another program. He claims he’s been clean and sober for eight months. And he credits the veterans court for helping him find new housing and putting him on a new path.

He has frequent court-mandated appointments with a psychiatrist.

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: I couldn’t open up to my own family, because they used to mistreat me emotionally.

SPENCER MICHELS: And with a nurse practitioner.

WOMAN: So, what has been going on?

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: Well, I got kicked out of that program for something that I didn’t do, suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol, which, I don’t drink.

SPENCER MICHELS: Every week, the key staff at the VA Center in downtown San Francisco meets to discuss the offenders.

WOMAN: I think there’s some inconsistent taking of his meds.

SPENCER MICHELS: And in Judge Ross’ chambers, another group, including the judge, the prosecutor, the public defender, and the probation officer, collaborate on how they will handle each vet who comes before the court.

MAN: He is doing extremely well. He’s in full compliance.

SPENCER MICHELS: San Francisco’s public defender, Jeff Adachi, says this approach is something completely new in criminal courts, something he welcomes.

JEFF ADACHI, San Francisco Public Defender: I remember when no consideration was given to a person’s background as a veteran, and we had to really fight just to get that evidence in at trial.

SPENCER MICHELS: Veterans courts were at first reluctant to enroll those accused of violent crimes. But, today, that is changing. Adachi says it’s about time.

JEFF ADACHI: We are looking at admitting veterans who are charged with violent crime. And, obviously, it’s going to be over a period of time to see whether or not this is successful. But if you want to prevent violence, one of things you have to do is be willing to treat people who are charged with violent crimes, and not exclude them.

SPENCER MICHELS: For some offenders, court can demand more than they are ready for. This vet didn’t show up when he had agreed to, and despite his excuses, Judge Ross sentenced him to three days in jail, starting immediately.

For Rodriguez, the new approach has led to success for the first time in 20 years.

(APPLAUSE)

AXEL RODRIGUEZ: Veterans court is an event that you go to every week. It’s not a court. It’s an event, that we — we cheer each other on when — you know, when we are in compliance. It’s a great thing.

SPENCER MICHELS: That’s a kind of success in progress that veterans from around the country may also soon experience.

Spencer Michels for the PBS NewsHour in San Francisco.

]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/special-courts-take-on-criminal-cases-of-veterans-struggling-with-trauma/feed/0Man Acquitted in Uber Self-Defense Casehttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/man-acquitted-in-uber-self-defense-case/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/man-acquitted-in-uber-self-defense-case/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 17:35:19 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3860San Francisco, CA — A homeless man who threw his skateboard into the windshield of an Uber driver who sped toward him in a darkened alley has been acquitted of all charges, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

Jurors on Friday found Martin Knaak, 49, not guilty of vandalism and resisting arrest. Knaak faced up to a year in jail if convicted, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Eric Guttschuss.

Knaak’s trouble began shortly after 1 a.m. on Dec. 6, while walking along Moulton Street in the Marina District. A passing Uber driver in a Prius, apparently angry that Knaak had been jaywalking on a nearby street, motioned for him to walk in the crosswalk , then extended his middle finger.

Moments later, when Knaak crossed in front of the Prius at an intersection, the driver smiled and revved his motor, apparently threatening the homeless man. In response, Knaak splashed his soda onto the car. The angry driver then pursued Knaak, at times traveling down the wrong side of a street and forcing him between two parked cars before following him on foot while videotaping him.

Knaak retreated down a narrow alley. Postal trucks were parked on both sidewalks, making it necessary for him to walk in the street. Soon, headlights appeared and the Uber driver began accelerating toward Knaak. Fearing for his life, and with the speeding car a mere 30 feet away, Knaak threw his skateboard at the oncoming car and smashed its front windshield, Guttschuss said.

Knaak, shaken, called 911 and reported that a man was trying to run him over. Police arrived to find the homeless man emotional and distraught and placed him in handcuffs. Meanwhile, the Uber driver described an unprovoked attack on his vehicle. Handcuffed and on his knees, Knaak began tapping his head in frustration on a building wall. Police then pulled him to the ground by his hair, one of the officers driving her knee into Knaak’s shoulder, another injuring his thumb.

“Police made assumptions without ever hearing Mr. Knaak’s side of the story. He was the victim of a crime. He needed help,” Guttschuss said.

Knaak’s emotional testimony resonated with jurors during the three-day trial. Jurors later stated they believed the homeless man acted in self-defense.

“This was a very difficult experience for him. He called 911, hoping officers would protect him. Instead, he was arrested,” Guttschuss said.

The Uber driver also testified, claiming he did not pursue Knaak. However, the driver’s cell phone video contradicted his claims.

When the jury returned its verdict, Knaak teared up and said, “They still lied.”

Adachi said the case highlights the need to be unbiased when investigating crimes.

“As a crime victim, Mr. Knaak deserved every bit of the police response and protection that would have been afforded to a wealthy San Franciscan,” Adachi said. “What happened to him is a betrayal of justice. Fortunately, his public defender was able to end his nightmare.”

]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/man-acquitted-in-uber-self-defense-case/feed/0Jami Tillotson Issues Statement, Files Complainthttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/jami-tillotson-issues-statement-files-complaint/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/jami-tillotson-issues-statement-files-complaint/#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 19:27:07 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3847San Francisco, CA — Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson released the following statement today on the San Francisco Police Department’s decision not to pursue resisting arrest charges against her for objecting to officers questioning and photographing her client outside a courtroom.

“While I appreciate Chief Suhr’s apology, I am concerned that he continues to support Sgt. Brian Stansbury’s actions. My client, a young African American man, was left without the benefit of advice of counsel. The right to counsel is not a formality. It is a shield that protects ordinary people against intimidation, bullying, and overreach by law enforcement. Sgt. Brian Stansbury appears to have a history of violating the rights of African American men and I look forward to a thorough investigation by the Office of Citizen Complaints,” Tillotson said.

Tillotson filed an OCC complaint today against the officers involved in her Jan. 27 arrest (tillotson.occ complaint) The San Francisco Public Defenders Office released additional footage today of Tillotson being roughly led to Southern Station by Officer Brian Kneuker, who then admonishes a witness to stop taping the encounter. That footage can be seen at: http://bit.ly/1zkOsdo

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the incident demonstrates a need for additional education on civil rights and protections.

“We believe that SFPD is vital need of training so that constitutional violations are not perpetrated on citizens in our community,” Adachi said.

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]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/02/jami-tillotson-issues-statement-files-complaint/feed/0Video: Deputy Public Defender Unjustly Arrestedhttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/video-deputy-public-defender-unjustly-arrested/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/video-deputy-public-defender-unjustly-arrested/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 22:07:09 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3818San Francisco, CA — San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi today released video showing a deputy public defender being unlawfully arrested outside a courtroom as she attempted to protect her client’s right to counsel.

The cell phone footage, taken Tuesday afternoon inside the San Francisco’s Hall of Justice , shows San Francisco Police Inspector Brian Stansbury arresting Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson for refusing to let her client, a young African American man, be questioned without the presence of his attorney.

Stansbury, the subject of a 2013 federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a black SFPD officer alleging racial profiling, cites Tillotson for resisting arrest as a uniformed officer places her in handcuffs. Tillotson, an 18-year veteran of the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, remains calm and courteous throughout the video, telling Stansbury and five officers that she is representing her client and is not resisting arrest.

Officers took Tillotson to a holding cell in Southern Station, where she remained handcuffed to a wall for approximately an hour. After Tillotson was led away, Stansbury photographed and questioned her client and another young man who did not have an attorney present. Officers refused to tell the young men or Tillotson the reason for the detention.

“Public defenders have a duty to protect the constitutional rights of their clients,” Tillotson said at a noontime press conference Wednesday. “It was surreal to be led away in handcuffs for doing my job, something I do every day.”

Adachi called Tillotson’s arrest “outrageous” and “disappointing.”

“This is not Guantanamo Bay. People have an absolute right to have their attorneys present during questioning,” he said.

The Public Defender has requested a copy of the police report in the incident and has demanded both an explanation and an apology.

“A uniform does not give you a license to bully innocent people into submission,” Adachi said. “If this happens to a public defender in front of her client, I can only imagine what is happening on our streets.”

Video of the incident can be found at http://bit.ly/18vHKXS or watch it below.

Superior Court Judge Don Mitchell administered the oath of office during the 8 a.m. inauguration ceremony. Adachi has served as San Francisco Public Defender since 2003. Since then, he has reduced caseloads in order to improve representation; hired paralegals, investigators and social workers; and led the way with innovative programs in prisoner reentry, criminal record clean-up and juvenile justice. As a result, the office has been recognized a national model in criminal and juvenile representation.

Still, Adachi told assembled elected officials, supporters and staff that there is much work left to be done. Reducing racial disparities in the criminal justice system has become a top priority, he said.

“Our system of justice is broken. We know this from what we see every day in the courts, jails and prisons,” he said.

Adachi cited statistics showing that black motorists are four times more likely than white motorists to be pulled over in San Francisco and seven times more likely to be arrested. Black men are routinely subject to higher bails and harsher sentences and African Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites, even though both groups use drugs at similar rates.

Much of the disparities are the result of implicit bias—unconscious prejudices carried by all human beings that affect their decision-making, Adachi said.

“It can affect a police officer’s decisions about who to stop and who is perceived as a threat, or how a prosecutor charges a case or offers a plea bargain, or a judge’s decision about bail or sentencing,” Adachi said. “These biases also affect how we, as public defenders, do our jobs. The good news is this is something we can begin to address.”

The Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee, formed in 2013, will spend much of the next year assisting scientists and economists from the University of Pennsylvania’s Quattrone Center in a study to identify the root of bias in decision-making. Researchers will analyze local data related to race and traffic stops, bail, plea bargains and sentencing.

“As public defenders, we have to fight harder than ever before,” Adachi told his staff. “It is our job to ensure the power of the government is not abused, to enforce the Constitution, to expose police misconduct and to fight for racial justice.”

Public defenders must be on the front lines of addressing racial disparities in the system, he said.

“We cannot ignore the impact of racism on what we do, on juries, or in other decisions. It is a luxury we cannot afford. And there can be ‘No Justice, No Peace!’ until we can eradicate the racism that is killing and mistreating black and brown people in this country.”

Supervisor London Breed, who spoke at the inauguration, recalled meeting Adachi when she was growing up in public housing. Adachi represented her friend who was wrongfully accused of a crime and ensured the innocent girl did not go to jail.

“If you don’t have a dime in your pocket, public defenders from this office will work so hard to make sure you have a fair trial,” Breed said.

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]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/at-inauguration-adachi-pledges-to-battle-bias/feed/0Public Defenders at Forefront of Reforms in 2014http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/public-defenders-at-forefront-of-reforms-in-2014/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/public-defenders-at-forefront-of-reforms-in-2014/#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 18:03:09 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3531San Francisco, CA — As the national mood shifted from “tough on crime” to “justice for all,” public defenders in 2014 led reforms in racial justice, education, immigration, and rehabilitation, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

The year-end report of accomplishments and statistics was released this week in “The Art of Justice,” San Francisco Public Defender’s 2014 Annual Report and 2015 Calendar. The report is illustrated with the artwork of San Francisco Public Defender clients, employees and supporters.

“In 2014, our staff provided extraordinary legal representation for more than 20,000 people. We fought in the courtroom for reasonable bails, argued for treatment over incarceration, and fiercely guarded the right to due process,” Adachi said.

Public defenders also tackled injustice outside the courtroom, such as racial disparities in arrests and prosecutions, as well as unequal access to health, educational and housing resources.

As shootings of unarmed black men highlighted racial inequality nationwide, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office in 2014 partnered with a national research and policy hub to identify racial disparities in San Francisco’s criminal justice center and advance solutions locally. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Quattrone Center for Fair Administration of Justice will examine traffic stops, plea bargains, charging and sentencing throughout 2015.

In November, Californians rejected overcriminalization by passing a law to reduce nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. San Francisco public defenders wasted no time implementing Proposition 47, helping 38 clients reduce their felony charges to misdemeanors, and helping 150 people terminate or reduce their probation. In addition, the Public Defender’s Clean Slate program assisted 5,202 law abiding citizens in cleaning up their old criminal convictions, giving them greater access to jobs, housing and college financial aid.

Other year-end accomplishments detailed in the report:

Securing acquittals in more than a third of the office’s 64 felony trials and 113 misdemeanor trials.

Earning both national and local honors for keeping at-risk youth in school through its Legal Educational Advocacy Program. LEAP’s education attorney and youth advocate held 237 meetings with client families and made 525 school visits, resulting in no LEAP clients being expelled.

Linking hundreds of clients to treatment and services through the office’s social workers and collaborative courts.

Distributing more than 4,000 backpacks and school supplies to children and providing literacy and agency support through our community-based MAGIC programs.

Launching public affairs show “Justice Matters” to educate San Franciscans on their rights.

The annual report and calendar was not printed at public expense and is available, free, to the public at the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, 555 Seventh St. The document can be can be accessed here.

Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark A. Peterson’s rebuke of Public Defender Robin Lipetzky for bringing up racial disparities in the criminal justice system evokes a famous line from Hamlet. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “The (prosecutor) doth protest too much, methinks.”

Peterson’s angry, multi-page letter and press release in response to Bay Area public defenders holding “Black Lives Matter” rallies claims there is no racism in the criminal justice system, at least in Contra Costa County.

But his claim ignores overwhelming statistical evidence showing African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to be arrested, convicted and more harshly sentenced than their white counterparts.

Peterson’s missive reads like a frightening laundry list of preconceived notions that stand in the way of equal justice under the law.

He boldly asserts that all decisions by police officers, district attorney, and judges are race neutral. He offers that the reason behind more black people in prison is because they are committing more crimes against other black people.

But decades of studies show otherwise. Blacks and Latinos make up 58 percent of all prisoners yet only 25 percent of the American population. Despite similar drug usage rates across all races, people of color are more likely to be prosecuted and receive harsher sentences for a drug-related crimes.

In 2012, economists and law professors at Harvard, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania published a study that found black defendants receive longer prison sentences than their similarly situated white counterparts.

They also determined that African-Americans are far more likely to be arrested than white Americans, that “judges take race into account in their sentencing decisions” and that “the magnitude of this effect is substantial.” The statistics go on.

Peterson also seems to think that the high rate of black-on-black crime somehow is different from that of white-on-white crime rate. It is not.

Whites kill other whites at a rate of 84 percent. Furthermore, that there is a high black-on-black crime rate does nothing to diminish the fact that young black men are 21 times as likely as their white peers to be killed by police.

The demonstrations across the country, including those held by Bay Area public defenders, are a response to this stark disparity. Bringing up black-on-black crime is a distraction from the real work of improving our justice system.

The first step to eliminating racial disparities is recognizing the problem and being willing to address it.

In San Francisco, the district attorney is taking a proactive approach by partnering the Vera Institute to conduct an internal evaluation of how race affects charging decisions.

The San Francisco Public Defender is engaged in a similar study with the Quattrone Center at the University of Pennsylvania Law School to examining everything from traffic stops to plea agreements.

If Peterson truly cares about eliminating racism, he should do the same.

An independent, objective, and comprehensive study would go a long way in determining whether or not there is room for improvement.

Christopher C. Hite is a deputy public defender in San Francisco and co-chair of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee.

]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/01/op-ed-contra-costa-das-race-blind-claim-doesnt-bear-scrutiny/feed/0SF Public Defenders Hold ‘Hands Up’ Protesthttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2014/12/sf-public-defenders-hold-hands-up-protest/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2014/12/sf-public-defenders-hold-hands-up-protest/#commentsThu, 18 Dec 2014 23:05:07 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3520San Francisco, CA—More than 200 public defenders and allies held a “hands up, don’t shoot” protest today on the steps of San Francisco’s criminal courthouse to show support for racial justice and stand in solidarity with protesters in New York, Ferguson and around the country.

While San Francisco public defenders rallied outside 850 Bryant St., public defenders in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Solano counties staged similar actions today at their county courthouses.

Speakers included Cephus Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant and founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation; Chris Hite, co-chair of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee, which organized the rally; and Yolanda Jackson, executive director of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the executive director of the Justice & Diversity Center.

“There are few organizations in the United States that have closer ties to the black and brown members of our society than the public defender offices through the nation,” said Deputy Public Defender Chris Hite, co-chair of the Racial Justice Committee. “We felt it was essential to cast a light upon the racial injustices of the black and brown in our communities and to celebrate the notion that black and brown lives matter.”

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee formed in 2013 to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system and to advocate for reform in police detentions and arrests, prosecutorial charging and sentencing. The committee has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Quattrone Center to study the impact of race on the criminal justice system in San Francisco.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi called for accountability on behalf of victims of racial profiling and police brutality.

“As public defenders, it our responsibility to ensure that there is justice for all in the courts,” Adachi said. “We are here to say that our criminal justice system has no credibility when it fails to hold police officers accountable for the killing of black and brown people.”

Jackson said lawyers will be key to bringing about change.

“San Francisco attorneys are known for being brilliant legal minds. We are lawyers with a heart in this city and we are often national leaders on very tough issues. This time should be no different,” she said. “Lawyers work within the justice system every day, we understand the justice system and in fact in many ways we help to design the justice system through our work.”

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee is currently working on a plan for police department reform in light of the recent spate of unarmed black men around the country.

]]>http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2014/12/sf-public-defenders-hold-hands-up-protest/feed/1Man Acquitted of Torching Mercedeshttp://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2014/12/man-acquitted-of-torching-mercedes/
http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2014/12/man-acquitted-of-torching-mercedes/#commentsMon, 15 Dec 2014 21:05:02 +0000http://sfpublicdefender.org/?p=3513San Francisco, CA — A 48-year-old man was acquitted of breaking into a luxury apartment garage and torching a Mercedes after a jury determined his arrest was based on an unreliable identification, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi announced today.

Jurors on Friday afternoon found San Francisco resident Anthony Bejarano not guilty of burglary and arson, both felonies. Bejarano, a regular volunteer at Project Open Hand with no previous criminal record, faced up to 10 years in state prison if convicted, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Chris Hite.

On June 19, a Mercedes sedan was found ablaze in the parking garage of One Rincon Hill apartments. While nobody witnessed the crime, a valet told the property manager he saw a man standing in front of the car shortly before the fire and then running from the building.

Bejarano was in the building that day to serve legal papers to a One Rincon Hill resident. Surveillance footage captured him walking on the valet level of the garage, a floor above where the Mercedes was parked. There was no footage of Bejarano on the same floor as the blaze, and he did not have any connection to the car’s owner.

The building manager and police confronted the valet with a single screenshot of Bejarano and asked him if it appeared to be the same man he saw near the car. The valet said yes, and police publicly released the image, leading to Bejarano’s arrest six days after the fire. Police subsequently searched his home, sending his clothing to a crime lab to be tested for accelerant. None was found and there was no other forensic evidence linking Bejarano to the crime.

During the two week trial, Hite exposed weaknesses in the valet’s identification of Bejarano.

Dr. Mitchel Eisen, director of forensic psychology at California State University Los Angeles, testified that the identification was made in a highly suggestive manner—based on a single photo instead of a lineup and at the behest of the valet’s boss while he was surrounded by police officers.

“The jury had strong concerns about the reliability of the identification,” Hite said. “There was simply nothing else linking Mr. Bejarano to the crime—no motive, no DNA, no fingerprints. It didn’t make sense.”

Bejarano was originally charged with a second fire in the area, but those charges were dismissed by a judge due to lack of evidence. The case highlights the problems with eyewitness identification, Adachi said.

“Eyewitness misidentification is the most common element in wrongful convictions that are later overturned by DNA evidence,” Adachi said. “Fortunately, Mr. Bejarano’s public defender was able to spotlight the many holes in the case.”